REDMOS: Redhouse's Cosmos

REDMOS (REDhouse’s CosMOS): Embracing the Digital Frontier in Turkish Historical Lexicography: A Digital Monographic Case Study of Redhouse’s Lexicographical Identity and Practices through the Lens of el-Hazinetü’l-Aziziyye fi’l-Lugâti’l-Osmâniyye

REDMOS is a digital monographic case study that examines Sir James W. Redhouse’s identity as a lexicographer together with his dictionary texts, letters, archival documents, traces of preparation, and intellectual contact networks. The project aims to make Redhouse’s lexicographical work visible as a document-based process of knowledge production, extending beyond the completed dictionary texts themselves.

The study focuses in particular on the lexicographical practices that took shape around el-Hazinetü’l-Aziziyye fi’l-Lugâti’l-Osmâniyye. Redhouse’s word selection, modes of definition, use of sources, preparatory processes, correspondence, and intellectual milieu are reassessed through digital research methods, document-based traceability, and network-oriented modes of reading.

REDMOS proposes a model of study in digital monograph format for Turkish historical lexicography. This model approaches dictionaries not as static reference works, but as multilayered research objects formed through the relationships between author, text, archive, correspondence, source, contact network, and historical context. In this way, Redhouse’s lexicographical practices can be examined within the textual, documentary and intellectual contexts of Ottoman-period lexicographical history.

Host institution/context: University of Cambridge / Cambridge Digital Humanities
Research context: Conducted through on-site research within the archival ecosystem of Cambridge Digital Humanities and Cambridge Library.
Logo design: Assoc. Prof. Dr Şermin Kalafat